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Credits
This site was written, designed and developed by J.B. Bird.
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William "Dub" Warrior with the author. |
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the following people for assisting with
the project, either in its Web phase or in its incubation period, when it was conceived of as a documentary film:
- William "Dub" Warrior
- Thomas Senter
- Ian Hancock
- Paulina Del Moral
- David DeWitt
- John & Mary Alice Bird
- Mary Lampe & The Southwest Alternate Media Project
- Bill Stahl and many friends who discussed various phases of the project.
- Courtney Waldren
Also see: Project Sponsors &
funding
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Project Background
This project started life in 1998 as an idea for a documentary film.
Through various emanations of the idea, several great people helped
move the project along, including William "Dub" Warrior, a Black
Seminole historian who agreed to serve as a narrator,
David DeWitt, an excellent cameraman and producer, Paulina Del
Moral, a scholar in Mexico, Thomas Senter, co-editor of Kenneth Wiggins Porter's posthumously published
Black Seminoles, and scholars Patricia Wickman, Kevin Mulroy, and Ian Hancock.
To make a long story short, however, I was unable
to move forward a project of the scope I had imagined. I still believe that an excellent television documentary can come
out of this story, and I would like to find the right collaborators
to help develop it, so if you fit that description, feel free to contact me,
J.B. Bird, at The University of Texas at Austin,
jb.bird@mail.utexas.edu,
512-232-9623. I have a
documentary treatment at the ready.
While marshalling a television production was outside my abilities,
I have produced several university Web sites, so out of the
documentary research, I hit on the idea of creating a Web-based
documentary on the same theme as the film. The project was initially
funded through private resources. I worked on it out of my love for
the history and sense of obligation to friends and colleagues who
had advised on the film project. With them in
mind and our mutual desire to bring this story to wider attention, I
decided to complete a Web documentary which could be of interest to both
initiates and general readers alike--something academic historians
could enjoy, and also middle school or high school students.I
started with four main aesthetic goals, to which I hope Rebellion
has remained true:
- Show my sources: image sources and historical references.
- Respect my audience.
- Visualize history.
- Tell a story.
Writing and design began in 2001. Phase one was complete by the
end of 2002,
but more than two more years awaited publication because the site still needed the final section on Texas and Mexico and,
more importantly, I needed
permission from image repositories and license holders for the right
to publish materials on the Web.
Thanks to a generous grant from the Summerlee Foundation I was
able to complete both of these last legs of a long journey and
publish Rebellion in June 2005. As of this writing, I am promoting
the site to search engines. If you like the site, please link to it
or visit a few times.
Many years in the making, this site is now available to the
public. Please enjoy it like a good book and share it with friends.
—J.B. Bird
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